Education Minister Evarist tried to shift the blame and attempted a cover up of his political responsibilities by appointing biased inquiries, PN spokesman on Education Joe Cassar said this morning.

Speaking during the debate on the Education Ministry's financial estimates, Mr Cassar  referred to the inquiries appointed by Mr Bartolo: one on the postponement of Skola Sajf and the second when a young boy was found in the street after running away from school in Fgura. "Summer does not come unexpectedly; everyone knows when it starts," Mr Cassar said, sarcastically. The Education Ministry had, however, been caught with its pants down and did not have enough teachers to staff the Skola Sajf programme.

Furthermore, he said, the inquiries appointed by the government were led by people close to the PL who were only chosen to hide the Minister's failings. One of the inquiry boards had even expressed concern over the person chosen to lead it.

Mr Cassar said the PL government inherited an efficient and successful education sector. The PL electoral manifesto was full of "dreams" which never materialised. The "wish list" included the proposal for an effective consultation process but that promise turned into smoke when Evarist Bartolo introduced the highly controversial Legal Notice 76.

The wish list also included a proposal to decrease bureaucracy for teachers and a campaign to encourage respect towards them. Mr Cassar said every day he meets disillusioned teachers who say they are disappointed because the government does not listen to them.

The PN MP said the Minister is trying to give the impression that he is delivering but what he is doing lacks thought and direction.  "It is good to invest in technology but first you have to have a good foundation to build on. This is not the case with this government."

The government's first wrong move was to change primary schools from one college to another. This was done without consultation and the change affected parents, who had only just got accustomed to the previous change. They also had to buy new uniforms for their children. The system at Maria Regina was changed twice to satisfy the Minister's constituency needs, said Mr Cassar.

The PN MP accused the government of not investing enough in new schools. Under this government almost all students will be going to second hand schools.

Funds for training of teachers are also lacking and those who lead the education system have to accept decisions already taken by the minister. Teachers are too afraid to speak up against these problems.

The PL has been in government for almost two years. We would have expected to have at least one new school by now. The government is not working on any new schools and the budget speech was an admission of this. He challenged the Minister to provide a detailed timeline of the new schools that will be built during this legislature and of maintenance and renovation works on others.

He also referred to the free childcare scheme, which cost €5 million this year and €8 million in 2015. Joseph Muscat had claimed that the scheme would result in an extra €1 million in government revenue. Was this really the case? How is this being calculated?

In 2013 the government promised to open three new Smart Kids Child Care Centres. One was already open by that time, the second was opened a year late and plans for the third were abandoned.

The Alternative Learning Programme had already failed before it was launched, he said, because of decisions taken by a hard-headed minister who did not believe in consultation. You need to tell the truth about what is happening in the Paola School and what went so wrong with this programme. The government has already admitted its failures because next year's curriculum will be different.

Students had to apply online for their stipends and they were not informed from well ahead, leading to chaos during the first week of school. Mr Cassar said the increase in the prices of exams was "shocking." The budget speech said students will no longer pay income tax on their stipends, but the government was misleading becase the only students who paid income tax were those who had a job.

After 20 months in government the Ministry had also failed to come up with a training programme for Learning Support Assistants. "LSAs  are calling for more training. How much longer will they have to wait?"

Independent and Church schools received their financial assitance late. The word 'University' only appeared three times in the budget speech he said, and the references to it were vague. These are all symptoms of a problematic system, he said.  

In a short address, PN MP Albert Fenech said not enough was being done on research. "We need to marry research with investors and innovators." Professor Fenech expressed concern over MCAST's future since the Horizon 2020 programme was removed from its remit and placed under that of the government's Funds and Programmes Division.

PN MP Robert Cutajar said both parties had agreed that 16-yeard-olds should be allowed to vote in local council elections. However, after giving them that right, the Justice Minister said there was a chance that the next round of local council elections would not be held. The government was not showing respect to our youths, he said. The government was making a distinction: giving half of sixteen-year-olds the right to vote and denying the same right to the other half.

Mr Cutajar referred to a letter published by the University Student Council (KSU) this morning, which said that new graduates are worried about their job prospects.

Turning to sport, Mr Cutajar said it was wrong to appoint politicians to lead this sector, noting that Malta Sports Council has a parliament backbencher (Luciano Busuttil) for a chairman for the first time in history. His deputy used to work with the PL's TV station until a few months ago. Mr Cutajar said Dr Busuttil, who is paid around €50,000 a year, had twice refused to appear before a board of inquiry.

The PN MP said the sailing sector had suffered two major blows. A Birzebbuga sailing club was negatively impacted because of the Delimara power station project and the restricted area around it, and the Vikings Sailing Club were not allocated a place to practice the sport. Children and parents are highly disappointed, he said. The government said it wants to boost sports tourism but it was destroying these sports locally. The PN MP questioned why a PN press statement congratulating another Maltese sporting success had been removed from the TVM website. 

Gozitan PN MP Frederick Azzopardi said Malta has falled five places in the Global Competitiveness Index. The link between the education sector and the labour market should be automatic, he said. We have to be creative in order to be competitive, he said.

Mr Azzopardi said the university is suffering a brain drain because the best researchers are leaving the country.  

Stephen Spiteri said it was positive that the unemployment rate had decreased further and these positive developments have to be sustained. The PN MP said budget measures to incentivise more people to join the labour market, including free childcare and the tapering of social services, are commendable. The government has to make sure, however, that there are available jobs for those targeted by these schemes and measures.

Dr Spiteri said the budget also included measures in favour of the disabled but it was important for the ETC to offer job coaching. He also urged the government to address the problem of poverty, which seems to be growing.

Former Parliamentary Secretary Clyde Puli said the budget lacks the vision to create new jobs and new types of jobs. That is why there was a lot of talk on the increase in jobs in the public sector. The PN MP said it was true that the government needed to employ a number of nurses, teachers and LSAs but not all new public sector jobs were needed.

On the Youth Guarantee, Mr Puli said he was concerned that the scheme seemed to be more of a way of reducing the number of registering unemployed rather than a means to provide quality training and a better future to youths. He was also concerned at the fact that this scheme is being forced on youths, who will be fined if they do not join up. The whole thing could backfire, he said, referring to a similar instance in the past when unemployed youths were forced to learn Arabic. Youths should be encouraged to learn, rather than forced.